pastoral (L 'pertaining to shepherds') A minor but important mode which, by convention, is concerned with the lives of shepherds. It is of great antiquity and interpenetrates many works in Classical and modern European literature. It is doubtful if pastoral ever had much to do with the daily working-life of shepherds, though it is not too difficult to find shepherds in Europe (in Montenegro, Albania, Greece and Sardinia, for instance) who compose poetry sing songs and while away the hours playing the flute.| For the most part pastoral tends to be an idealization of shepherd life, and, by so being, creates an image of a peaceful and uncorrupted existence; a kind of a clean world.| Marlowe’s poem and Raleigh’s carefully symmetrical response were printed together in England’s Helicon (1600); the attribution of the second to Raleigh is first made by Izaak Walton in The Complete Angler (1653), where both poems are reprinted.| Slightly longer versions appear in Walton’s second edition (1655). Donne’s “The Bait” (also quoted by Walton) is inspired by the exchange. Marlowe’s poem embodies the classic example of carpe diem, as can be seen in the shepherd’s attitude, while Raleigh’s nymph finds in them an argument precisely for not seizing the day.| In the late r6th c. many other works amplified the pastoral tradition, such as Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, which evoked a memorable reply from Sir 'Walter Raleigh .|

"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is a pastoral poem written by Christopher Marlowe in the late sixteenth century. According to Dr. Debora B. Schwartz, Pastoral is a term that comes from the Latin word for (Schwartz). This poem was set in a shepherd's field or dwelling. The only information that we have about the speaker is that he is a shepherd and...